Major concern has been expressed about the high number of people with mental health problems who need to be readmitted to hospital.

Figures from the HSE show that in 2015, over 13,000 people were admitted to hospital with mental health issues and within 12 months, two in three of these (66%) needed to be readmitted.

According to Mental Health Reform, which promotes improved mental health services and is made up of over 50 organisations working in this area, this readmission rate is simply too high.

However, it insisted that it could be reduced ‘if we had more fully developed community-based services as first recommended in A Vision for Change ten years ago'.

A Vision for Change was the Government's mental health policy, which aimed to provide a framework for the development of mental health services in Ireland. It was published in 2006.

"The OECD has identified that if appropriate and coordinated follow-up is provided after discharges, patients are not usually readmitted to hospital within 30 days. In the UK, the NHS has set a clinical standard that support services, both in the hospital and in primary, community and mental health settings, must be available seven days a week," noted the director of Mental Health Reform, Dr Shari McDaid.

She also expressed concern about an RTE report which stated that none of the HSE's community mental health services currently provide 24-hour cover. Furthermore, almost one in three vacancies for clinical nurse specialists who look after patients in Emergency Departments (EDs) who self-harm or have suicidal thoughts, remain unfilled.

"Arrangements should be evolved and agreed within each community mental health team (CMHT) for the provision of 24/7 multidisciplinary crisis intervention. Each catchment area should have the facility of a crisis house to offer temporary low support accommodation if appropriate.

"Ten years on it is simply not good enough that no CMHT provides 24-hour cover forcing people in severe mental health distress to attend hospital EDs. Mental health emergencies do not only occur from nine to five, and a busy ED is often inappropriate for people in mental health crisis," Dr McDaid insisted.

Meanwhile, the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland (CPI) said that the figures released by the HSE suggest that the apparent support for A Vision for Change ‘is simply PR that does nothing for those in real need across the country'.

"Ireland has a plan for mental health services that is the envy of other countries so why wait? People with mental health problems, their families and staff welcome the continued articulated support by politicians for A Vision for Change, but we want to see the practical manifestation of modern supports for people with mental illness nationally where and when they need them," commented the CPI's director of communication, Dr John Hillery.